Have in hands

Hands in classical portraiture hold more than mere objects. They can also hold secrets and reveal stories of place, time or social class. Hand gestures can have myriad meanings in religious art, or amorous meanings in later portrait art. The classic Napoleonic 'hand in waistcoat' pose in men's portraiture harkened back to classical times when it was considered bad manners to speak with an arm outside of one's toga. And once upon a time a woman's hand fan was an instrument of communication for her. Her freedom of speech was highly restricted otherwise, so this was very clever indeed. 

(click to see larger view) 

There was an entire slew of secret messages in fan language. For example, to fan slowly meant that the woman was saying I am married. No doubt this this was done somewhat surreptitiously, to a prospective paramour.  If a woman were to hold her hand on her left cheek it mean that she was saying no; to let the fan slide on her cheek, it meant I want you, and if she held the fan on her left ear it meant I want you to leave me alone.  

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The Golden Age of the Paunch

The Rue Montorgueil in Paris

Claude Monet's The Rue Montorgueil in Paris 

Being somewhat of a Francophile, I couldn't possibly let Bastille Day pass without some sort of nod to their chosen day of liberté, égalité, fraternité (freedom, equality, brotherhood). Oui, Bastille Day. And what better way to do this than with a French flag painting. Ok, not just any old French flag painting—this masterpiece is by French impressionist Claude Monet.

The Rue Montorgueil was painted on June 30th, 1878 for a festival declared that year by the government celebrating "peace and work," and was intended to be a symbol of France’s recovery after the defeat of 1870. Viva la France! 

See more famous flag paintings 

by clicking here. (mostly American!)

Iridescence

Lately on Pinterest I've been studying details of classic portraits. For example take a close look at Nicolas de Largillière's Portrait of a Woman painted in 1749. I don't know about you but I get goosebumps looking at this kind of painting detail! The story starts with a single shiny dropped pearl. See the turquoise and green in there? So well painted. And think about it, they probably didn't have plastic pearls made in China back in the 1700's—these were no doubt the real deal. 

Then zoom out a bit more... to see two more round pearls flanking the dropped one. Look closely at the shiny and bulbous cluster of pearls, the amazingly rich golden ribbon and beaded criss-crossed brocade on iridescent, creamy silver cloth, and the intricate, filagree lace. Isn't it all stunning?

 Zoom out a bit more… mmm, now you see more of that beautiful fabric, and a hint of cinnabar colored silk fabric down on the lower right, which is reflected in the woman's lustrous dress.

Zoom out a bit more… and you'll see the incredible tiny waist on this woman, her bodice wrapped so tightly across it she can probably hardly breathe! You see more of that cinnabar colored silk fabric that makes me swoon with envy, and more giant pearls here and there along with other details. 

Zoom out more... and you'll see Largillière's final full-sized painting. The woman's face seems so plain and conservative compared to her opulent dress. How old do you think she is? She has kept her figure for sure, but the powdered gray wigs they wore in those days throw me off trying to guess her age. Since you started backwards viewing the details of this painting, revealing more and more glorious bits long the way, you know that this visual journey all started with one… shiny… white... pearl.

The golden age of the paunch

This is how I feel after a season filled with holiday merriment and jollification! The 18th Century was the golden age of the paunch. If a gentleman had one—his tight waistcoat barely buttoned up over his expanding belly—then he proudly showed it off. Having yourself immortalized with a paunch in a portrait painting announced to the world in grand fashion that you were wealthy and held high office, that you lived a lavish lifestyle and ate well—enough to acquire a pudgy paunch—and that you, under no circumstances, ever lifted your finger for any manor of manual labor, but instead were waited upon. A power paunch was quite simply a coveted physical attribute. Of course, these days a paunch means it's time for a Dr. Oz intervention, a kale juice fast and a gym membership. So in honor of the glorious, paunch—and with those righteous New Year's resolutions rapidly approaching—I've put together this collection of paunches from classical paintings. Click on it to, um... enlarge!

paunch (noun) 
late 14c., from Old French pance 
(Old North French panche) "belly, stomach,"
 from Latin panticem (nominative pantex) "belly, bowels" 
(cf. Spanish panza, Italian pancia); 
possibly related to panus "swelling" 

Click here to see an entire Pinterest 

board dedicated to the power panch.

Crane Estate art show & sale—2013

This coming weekend is the Trustees of Reservations annual Crane Estate art show & sale! It's a chance to visit and "View more than 150 pieces of art highlighting the beauty of North Shore's landscapes and landmarks." I have 5 paintings in the show this year—two large canvases and three small ones. Shown here are three of them.

The Crane Estate is beautiful to visit this time of year, magically perched on a hillside that overlooks the Atlantic ocean. The kids can run wild and the adults can pop inside to see the paintings, then you can stop into Russell Orchards on the way home for some apples or cider donuts. It's free, and show hours are Saturday and Sunday, November 8th and 9th from 10-4. There is a preview party Friday night (Nov 7th) from 7 to 10 PM with an open bar, catered hors d'oeuvres, and music. Tickets for the preview party are $50. each, but it's a really good time and worth the price of admission to be in an enchanting grand estate filled with beautiful artwork. Hope you can make it some time over the weekend!

POSTSCRIPT: SOLD!

Four-legged Masterpieces

Pet 'parents' will do anything for their pets. Really. Anything. Like dishing out around $1000-$3000 to have them immortalized on canvas. I'm not usually one for pet portraits, but these heirloom oil paintings are real masterpieces. Rover as a King? Daisy as a Queen? Fido as a Russian emperor? You know your Ginger is a Princess! Connecticut-based artist Valerie Leonard will anthropomorphize your pet in classical portrait fashion to live through the ages. Hey, your pet is worth it, right? Too bad I only have goldfish.

By the sea...

Dan and I went on a cultural road trip last week to see two big art exhibits in Maine. The first show was by an artist who painted by the sea, the second show was in a building physically located by the sea.

First we drove up to Bowdoin College to see the Maurice Prendergast exhibit, which blew my socks off! I was always a fan of MBP's work, but after seeing his watercolor and oils in person I am absolutely smitten. (Click here for more information, and here for a story written by my favorite art critic, Sebastian Smee of the Boston Globe). The colorful canvases and sketch books were wildly painted and almost manic in style, but they were also calming in their continuity, and ultimately were somewhat mesmerizing. It was a big show, with room after room filled with joyful and enchanting works. My heart raced with excitement the entire time I was in the museum, and for about the next 24 hours afterwards. Yup, Prendergast stole my heart.

Next, we drove down to Portland, Maine, to see the Paley Collection at the Portland Museum of Art. The museum is located near enough to the Atlantic coastline that outside we could hear the seagulls squawking overhead, even amid the urban pulse of the city. The Paley Collection was colorful and beautifully varied. Cezanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Monet, Bonnard, Picasso — all were represented in the show. Read a review of the exhibit by Sebastian Smee here. And the rest of the museum has some spectacular artwork, including some gorgeous Wyeth and Homer paintings. And speaking of Homer...

If we could have acquired tickets to the Winslow Homer Studio exhibit on Prout's Neck in Maine, it would have been quite a day—the Triple Crown of museum hopping. Alas, the tickets are hard to come by.

Still ... what a day! If you live anywhere in New England, I urge you to pack a cooler and go on a road trip to these museums. You won't regret the chance to see these paintings.

Paul Gauguin's mystical The Seed of the Areoi

Winslow Homer's moody Weatherbeaten

The mermaid in art

Mermaid in the detail of a map by N.C. Wyeth   

Mermaids—sirens of the sea—are so enchanting, and not just to fishermen and shipwrecked sailers! Folklore of sea creatures with upper bodies of humans and tails of fishes have been told, retold, and illustrated for centuries. I put together this collection of mermaids in art throughout the ages. The first primative images are in the desert in South Africa, where it was once an ocean. Serpents and mermaids often appeared in prints and engravings (particularly in ancient maps), political cartoons, children's books, and so on. There are a lot of mermaids here (45ish!) and believe it or not I used restraint in choosing which images to post. Enjoy!

The Mermaid

Who would be

A mermaid fair,

Singing alone,

Combing her hair

Under the sea,

In a golden curl

With a comb of pearl,

On a throne?

~ Lord Alfred Tennyson

Karoo desert rock art, believed to be mermaids, South Africa

Karoo desert rock art, South Africa

coat of arms print, 1554-1591, by Jost Amman 

medieval mermaid and merman print, artist unknown

Giovanni Andrea Maglioli  1580-1610

a 19th-Century engraving of a manatee and a mermaid

Colored copper plate engraving, Neptune, mermaids, seashells, 1810 

 The Prince of Whales political cartoon, by  George Cruikshank, 1812

by John William Waterhouse, 1900

by Maurice Greiffenhagen, circa 1900

by Howard Pyle, 1910

by Herbert Cole, 1915

by Warwick Goble

by Herbert Cole, 1915

Unidentified artist

Unidentified artist

"And I should look like a fountain of gold," 

illustration to The Mermaid, by Alfred Lord Tennyson

by Warwick Goble, circa 1920

Pinup mermaid

Unidentified artist

by Lisa Paizis

by Annie Stegg

by William Stout, 1999

by Victor Nizovtsev, Russian fantasy illustrator

Darryl Hannah in the film Splash

Julianne Moore as a mermaid in a Annie Leibowitz photo

Magical!

A cone breasted Madonna-esque mermaid

The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark, 

 honors childeren's book writer Hans Christian Anderson. 

(We took this photo in 2005!)

And with a splash of her tail 

she disappeared into the blue beyond...